hood pins???

I installed a pair on my 04 and it was tuff. I bought the Ford Racing ones but they seem to be just a tad short. I did fix the problem after some brain storming but anyway, here is a pic I have on the web. If you need a closer shot let me know.

z1n your car looks awsome. i bought the frpp ones also. im scared to let anyone drill through my hood, as soon as i find a good shop i am putting them in. you have the cirvinis hood? i have the steeda. i asume i will run into the same problem of the pins being too short. what did you do to solve this problem. did you just weld a bolt under the pins to make them a bit longer? hav an under the hood pic. thanks

ADRENLN said:

z1n your car looks awsome. i bought the frpp ones also. im scared to let anyone drill through my hood, as soon as i find a good shop i am putting them in. you have the cirvinis hood? i have the steeda. i asume i will run into the same problem of the pins being too short. what did you do to solve this problem. did you just weld a bolt under the pins to make them a bit longer? hav an under the hood pic. thanks

Click to expand...

Thanks ADRENLN.

First thing, the hood is a 3" lift cobra R (95 style) from 50resto.com. This hood was a motha to fit and took me about a day to align. If I remember correctly, the Steeda hoods are 2 1/2" lift but I hear they fit almost perfectly with little to no issues.

OK the pins, I had to mount them where the stock adjustable bumper stop's (I think that's what they called) are located. AFter removing the bumper stops and drilling the holes bigger for the hood pins, I mounted the pins. Then I put a small dab of grease on top of both pins and closed the hood softly to let it rest on the pins as to get a mark for drilling the hole on the inside of hood. This hole needs to be offset from the top hole because as the hood shuts, the pin moves towards the back of the hole due to the curve of the hood. Also the pin is at an angle to match the hood. I used a bar to slightly angle the pins for better alignment.

OK the length. After doing all this and shutting the hood, the pin was not long enough. I had to get a piece of threaded bolt or pipe (dunno what it's called) and a nut that was female on both ends and long enough to allow for height adjustment. I placed a piece of rubber tubing over the whole thing and cut it to the proper height. This acts as a new bumper stop (for the hood to shut at proper height. The pictures below might help to explain what the heck I am trying to esplain. I hope this helps and sorry if i didn't explain it well enough. I failed english/writing class as you can tell. lol

This picture is of the drivers side without the rubber tubing


This picture is of the drivers side with the rubber tubing


Standing on the drivers side with hood open as i took this picture from the side


Standing in front of the car on drivers side. Down angle shot

i say dont if u can... im not a fan of hood pins. your hood is perfect and i think it would just make it look odd with them on

thanks for the great info z1n. i would love to just leave the hood alone, lett work for me, it seems like a tough process. however i am scared that the hood might come up on me at a high speed. people say the latch could fail, im not as concerned about that, as i am that the steeda hood part that is latched could weaken and break. it is just fiberglass. better safe then sorry.

i need a good shop to install this also. i dont want anybody messing up my hood. z1n, do you still have to drop the hood pretty high? i do now to make it close. how does that work out with the hood pins?

ADRENLN said:

thanks for the great info z1n. i would love to just leave the hood alone, lett work for me, it seems like a tough process. however i am scared that the hood might come up on me at a high speed. people say the latch could fail, im not as concerned about that, as i am that the steeda hood part that is latched could weaken and break. it is just fiberglass. better safe then sorry.

Click to expand...

Read this true story:
I was talking to this guy I meet on the street (he had a red cobra vert with stalker kit) about a week ago and we started talking about my hood pins. I told him I installed them when I installed the hood because I was scared it would fly open/off after reading in the forums. He started laughing and then showed me why. His windshield was cracked really bad and hood was chained down (it was also destroyed as well). His stalker (cervinis) hood flew open the night before. It didn’t break off but you could see that it had been dancing around and popped open. His latch for the hood was still in the closed position.

This is exactly why I installed the pins. It's not for looks at all but for my safety as well as others. I would suggest to anyone with an aftermarket hood that they have some hood pins installed if they can't do it them selves.

ADRENLN said:

i need a good shop to install this also. i dont want anybody messing up my hood. z1n, do you still have to drop the hood pretty high? i do now to make it close. how does that work out with the hood pins?

Click to expand...

I have to remove the pins before I pop the latch to open the hood. It can be done without removing the pins first but you have to push down on the hood while removing the pin which can be tricky. I usually drop the hood from about my upper chest (I am about 5'9") and it shuts. But if not then I just push down to shut. I also forgot to mention that I re-adjusted my latch after installing the hood. It was not aligned exactly where it should have been with the new hood. I do believe strongly that most hoods that fly open/off are due to poor install or lack off aligning the latch combined with a non tight fit between the bumper stoppers and the latch in closed position. The hood shouldn't dance around if it is installed with a tight fit. Hoods that dance around or move too much will eventually weakin the fiberglass at some point. Anyway you should have them installed since you have that Steeda hood (good choice btw) just for the peace of mind. Hope I helped.

It's threads like these that always make me again consider putting in the FRPP hoodpins I have. I love the old-school look, and am likewise worried about high-speed lift-offs.

A note re closing the hood that might be of use. There is another way to get it closed without dropping it. Lower it onto the latch. Inside the car, make sure that the hood release is in the "pushed-in" position. Then reach under the hood and trigger the yellow latch release. Then, hands on hood, push down until it closes and locks. May take a few times, but it usually works. Beats dropping it in my book.

z1n, dude, you must love to type! I think this was a great write-up for the guy to install pins. And very good pics too. The FRPP pins are the only way to go, and are the only 100% stainless pins I could find. Good job.

Thanks guys. Glad I could help. Oh and thanks john_324, that should be allot easier on my hood.